- Learn how the Writers Guild Foundation used Giveffect to help the team seamlessly transition their in-person events to Zoom, increasing their event attendance by 4X.
The Writers Guild Foundation hosted successful in-person community-building educational events for years. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the nonprofit had to stop hosting events altogether. The new normal brought on by the pandemic created a challenge and a new opportunity to engage with their supporters. The nonprofit turned to Giveffect to seamlessly transition their in-person events to online events resulting in a significant increase in engagement and attendance.
The Writers Guild Foundation
Founded in 1966, the Writers Guild Foundation preserves and promotes the history and craft of writing for the screen. The Writers Guild Foundation offers multiple programs and events, including the Veterans Writing Project, a visiting writers program that works with colleges and universities, a support staff training program, and much more.
Some of the Writers Guild Foundation events include writers of shows and movies like Abbott Elementary, Saturday Night Live, The Handmaid’s Tale, Better Call Saul, CODA, Pixar movies (Finding Nemo, WALL•E, Monsters, Inc., and Toy Story), Dune (2021), Forrest Gump.
The Challenge: In-person nonprofit events were canceled
Before 2019, all of the Writers Guild Foundation’s events were in-person. Once the Coronavirus pandemic hit, like the rest of the world, the Foundation had to find new ways to host meetings and events so their work could continue. They needed a way to host events online and communicate the changes to their constituents.
The Solution: Giveffect, an all-in-one nonprofit management software
The show must go on!
In December of 2020, Giveffect added a Zoom integration to help nonprofits. The integration seamlessly allows nonprofits within Giveffect to create and schedule Zoom meetings and events and assign Zoom links to campaigns. Whether creating a donation campaign or RSVP campaign (i.e., a ticketed event), nonprofits can easily assign Zoom links to each campaign.
The Writers Guild Foundation, a Giveffect nonprofit software user since 2017, used the new Giveffect Zoom integration to quickly transition their in-person events to a new virtual environment with Zoom. During this transition, the Writers Guild Foundation used Giveffect’s email marketing tool to communicate critical event updates and changes.
And because all their constituents, donors, potential supporters, and volunteers are in their CRM within Giveffect, with just a few clicks, the Foundation could easily identify key groups and donors to send targeted messaging to keep them updated on changes.
Result: 4x increase in nonprofit event attendance and continued success
The Writers Guild Foundation seamlessly transitioned their in-person event to Zoom, so much so that their event attendance increased over 4 times from 4,504 in 2018 (the last full year before the pandemic) to 18,089 in 2021 (the most recent full year of events).
The Writers Guild Foundation continues to hold its events on Zoom with the support of Giveffect’s suite of 10 technologies. Not only does the Writers Guild Foundation set up unique web pages for each event, but they also group their supporters within the CRM to send highly targeted and personalized communication. They also use Giveffect reporting to access and download analytics to review and compare events over time and track their success.
“I like how easy Giveffect has been to use. It allowed us to streamline our processes and gave us a database, so we can track who is reserving tickets and who is donating to the Foundation.”
“Giveffect even allows us to easily data map those who attend each event, and we can assign them to groups in the Giveffect CRM. And once they are automatically placed into groups, we can reach out to them easily with emails and more going forward. If they’re donors, attendees, or something else, the system keeps track of who they are and what they have done.”
— Enid Portuguez, Communications and Events Director at The Writers Guild Foundation
Are you interested in learning more about how Giveffect can help you seamlessly plan and execute your organization’s events with Giveffects nonprofit software? Schedule your demo today!